S&T: Ways to report sexual assault available

Thursday

Jul 3, 2014 at 2:44 PM

Statement issued regarding Title IX investigation

Staff Reports

Missouri University of Science and Technology officials say the campus offers several support services and resources for those who have been victims of or wish to report a sexual assault.Missouri S&T was among 12 campuses added Wednesday to a list of schools being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights for their handling of sex abuse complaints.The 12 schools named earlier this week, in addition to a previous list of 55 universities, are facing inquiries under Title IX, the federal law that prohibits gender discrimination on campus. Missouri S&T is the only Missouri university on the list at this time.The Department's Office for Civil Rights pledged to update the log on a weekly basis.According to a statement issued by the university after Wednesday’s press deadline, “Because this is an ongoing investigation, Missouri S&T officials cannot discuss details of the inquiry.”The statement goes on to say that Missouri S&T “is cooperating fully with the Department of Education in the investigation and continues to place a high priority on the safety and security of our students, faculty, staff and campus visitors.”According to the Department of Education, while a school is listed, it does not mean it has violated the law. It only means that it is under investigation. The list does not include any details about what prompted complaints.Some of the investigations came from complaints made to the Department of Education, while others were launched following compliance reviews.Earlier this year, University of Missouri system President Tim Wolfe asked each of the four UM campuses, including S&T, to conduct comprehensive reviews of their respective policies, training and procedures concerning the prevention and reporting of sexual assaults.In an email dated April 2 to the campus community, S&T Chancellor Cheryl B. Schrader shared a list of six services related to Title IX services, including sexual discrimination, assault, harassment, violence and stalking resources as well as three additional resources for mental health services.According to Schrader, the inventory was “the first step of a three-phase task force implemented to evaluate whether each UM system campus has the necessary resources to educate the campus community about sexual assault and prevention, an effective process for reporting such incidents, and adequate capacity to address mental health issues among our students, faculty and staff.”In the email Schrader wrote, “It is imperative that we set an example in taking an active role in addressing difficult issues such as sexual assault and mental illness.”

McCaskill’s fightU.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, who according to her spokesperson Anamarie R. Rebori, has been “deeply involved in combating sexual violence, since her time as a sex crimes prosecutor in Jackson County,” would not comment specifically on S&T being added to the list since it is an ongoing investigation.Rebori did say McCaskill last year led a successful effort in Congress to pass into law sweeping changes to how the military handles sexual assaults“In her current focus on curbing sexual assaults on campuses, she has said that schools are in some ways similar to the military, in that they are both closed cultural environments where survivors of assault can sometimes feel that they themselves are under the microscope,” Rebori said. “Also, institutions sometimes lack incentive to investigate and tackle these crimes in a transparent way.” The Democratic senator has said in the past that rape and sexual assault are “vastly underreported crimes wherever they occur.”McCaskill has held a series of public roundtables and “has launched a massive survey of hundreds of schools across the country, in order to craft legislation that she hopes will better protect students, and hold schools and federal regulators accountable,” Rebori said.

Missouri S&T lists the following resources as being available at Missouri S&T for “those who have been victims of, or wish to report, a sexual assault, or who may have mental health issues”:

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